I wanted to take a few moments to let our readers know what we have been up to lately, and what’s on deck for 2018! You may have noticed our social media presences hasn’t quite been up to par, and our website seems like it hasn’t been updated in ages. This past year we missed our annual Christmas giveaways and didn’t get a chance to post about our site’s birthday. So what have we been up to?

Our lives have been a bit crazy! With the Mrs. and I both working a full time job, and completing my MBA, our oldest starting school, and now becoming a family of 5, we haven’t had much time to post. We of course have gotten out for some Frugal Florida Fun, but sadly haven’t written about the mini adventures we have gone on. We also started two new websites: VolusiaLive.com that is dedicated to providing a local police scanner feed, and OurFamilyThyme.com about our gardening adventure. (Ok so that was late 2016, but the months are all blending together…) That’s all about to change! Now with some extra spare time on my hands, we’re gearing up to make this the best year ever!

Usually when I talk with the Mrs. about starting a garden, she usually rolls her eyes and directs my attention to the remnants of the failed raised bed garden in our backyard. We have been through this at least a few times. First when my oldest was born, when we both had visions of making our own organic baby food. It turns out we had a friend who actually went into business making her own, and our garden never really developed. Next our youngest came around. Since our friend was no longer in the business, I decided to try the square foot gardening method. With poor planning, our garden quickly became overrun by weeds. So this time when I mentioned to the Mrs. that I wanted to try my hand at gardening again she just pointed to the back yard and politely reminded me of my previous failures.

Well the joke is on her this time! A few months ago I decided to take the plunge and purchase some Mr. Stacky vertical gardening pots. I reached out to Mr. Stacky himself and arranged for a product review. After much research, I decided that vertical gardening would be the way to go for our family. Not only was it supposed to be low maintenance, but there would be very little room required. Based on the setup, I also knew that if it was a horrible failure, I could quickly remove the pots, and there would be no evidence left behind! So what in the world is a Mr. Stacky? Continue reading →

Share this:

Usually I love to write about events, adventures, and venues, but tonight I want to tell everyone about a random act of kindness that has somehow managed to change lives in the blink of an eye. Last weekend my family and I went to a friend’s house for a BBQ and some much-needed social interaction. At one point my oldest went to the car with me to grab something and much to my surprise, we saw the neighbor’s flag laying on the ground under his flag pole. It was a fairly blustery day which is strange for our area. The cord and one of the clasps must have come undone with all that wind.

My oldest and I walked over, unhooked the flag and picked it up off the ground. He didn’t quite know what we were doing, but I told him we had to fold the flag and return it. He didn’t quite understand why we couldn’t just throw it over my shoulder or ball it up like a towel. Instead I took the time to show him how to properly fold it. We then knocked on the neighbor’s door and I introduced myself as a friend of his neighbor. I explained politely to him that his flag was on the ground and that we wanted to properly return it to him. At first he was speechless. At first I thought he might be upset that I was messing with his personal property, but he thanked me and had a smile on his face, especially as he saw that my little guy was with me. I politely asked him if he was a veteran, and when he informed me he was, I genuinely thanked him for his service, shook his hand and we were on our way. Here was a WWII veteran who seemed very surprised that a complete stranger would take the time to not only return his fallen flag, but to fold it properly and neatly as it should be. Continue reading →

Let me take a moment to paint a picture for you. Long before I became a resident and an honorary Floridian, my family would take vacations to Florida. One of my earliest memories as a boy was packing into the truck and heading to the Kennedy Space Center! There I was, a young boy with space on his mind and a love of everything NASA related! In fact my parents still have a few of the NASA Magnets on their fridge from our visit.

Now after almost 30 years since my first visit, I reached out to the Kennedy Space Center to see if we could do a review. After all, the Kennedy Space Center put Central Florida on the map long before Disney did, and it’s one of the original Florida attractions. What I discovered was that over the past 30 years the Kennedy Space Center wasn’t at all what I remembered as a child, it was so much more! Sometimes when you revisit something from your childhood, it can often fall flat and you may have been better off with your memories. This was not the case with the KSC! I was so excited to share this new experience with my oldest little guy.

One quick point I want to make before I get into the specifics of the Kennedy Space Center is the that Visitor’s Complex is not tax funded. That’s right, we don’t actually pay for it as citizens, the visitors do. This has resulted in what I can only relay as top quality entertainment. After all, KSC is competing with the Mouse, Universal Studios and other top notch theme parks so they have to be good. While I was expecting more of a tour and a museum visit, what we actually experienced was more of an immersive, theatrical, and education experience like no other! Continue reading →

I have been waiting all year long to try this one out! Last year right around Easter time, I saw a post by our friends at FlaglerCountyFamilyFun.com where Sara told her readers about an awesome Easter tradition: a glow in the dark Easter egg hunt! So here I am a few weeks before Easter and I’m getting my gear ready to go. There is still time if you want to do one too! It’s actually much easier than you would expect and here is what we plan on doing.

For starters, we want to get some of our family and friends involved. Obviously this is more fun for the smaller kiddos, but people of all ages can really get into it. I thought the idea of a glow in the dark Easter egg hunt would be really cool to do in the backyard, but at first didn’t realize how I would actually get the eggs to glow. Glow in the dark spray paint can actually be quite expensive, and it really doesn’t work all that well. That’s where Sara’s great idea came in!

It turns out there are tiny LED lights that are just perfect to be able to pull off a glow in the dark Easter egg hunt, they key is to know what you’re looking for. Don’t tell anyone I told you this, but the secret is: (drumroll please…..) finger lights. Yep, that’s right, finger lights. These tiny LED lights come in a variety of colors and are usually found at the dollar store in four packs, or can be purchased in bulk online. Continue reading →